Introduction

Following are instructions for working with the road survey database. The database is a list of all road creation, alteration, and discontinuance records from the Hartland Town records. It included guides for creating a new record, editing (making changes to) an existing record, and deleting a record. The starting point for viewing and working with the database is the Summary of Road Surveys.

Table of Contents

Create a new record

Edit an existing record

Delete a record

Create A New Record

From the Summary of Road Surveys page, click the Create New Record button. The first time you do this, it will ask for your user name and password. Once the correct user name and password are entered, a new empty record is created in the database, and a new window will open. You can now enter information for each field.

Description Of Each Field

index

This is a unique number that is assigned to each record in the database. It can not be changed.

book

This is the book or volume number in which the survey record is found. It is a whole number, usually in the range 1 through 4.

page

This is the page number on which the survey record begins. It is a whole number.

occurrence

This is the entry number on that page. On some pages of the Town record book, there is more than one survey or part thereof. The surveys are numbered starting with 1, which is assigned to the first survey which BEGINS on that page. If a page begins with a survey which is continued from the previous page, then the following survey (the one which begins on this page) is numbered 1. This can be tricky, but is important to get right as it affects the naming of all computer files which pertain to the survey, discontinuance, or alteration.

rootFileName

This is the main portion of the name for all computer files which pertain to the survey, discontinuance, or alteration. For all nearly all cases, the default name based on the book, page, and occurrence is correct. Simply hit the tab key to leave this field and the correct name will be filled in.

transcribeBy

Initials of the person who transcribed the information from the Town record book to the Excel spreadsheet.

transcribeDate

Date that the information was transcribed from the Town record book to the Excel spreadsheet. The date must be in the form "YYYY-[M]M-[D]D". For months and days less than 10, you only need to enter a single digit.

checkBy

Initials of the person who checked the Excel spreadsheet against the Town record book for accuracy.

check2By

Initials of the second person who checked the Excel spreadsheet against the Town record book for accuracy. This will only be used if there was a problem found by the first proofreader (checkBy).

plotRoadSegmentBy

Initials of the person who moved the bearing and distance (sometimes called "metes and bounds") information to GIS software, then plotted the road. Note that at this stage, the road consists only of a series of short line segments, which are connected together end-to-end. It's correct position on the Town map has not yet been determined.

locateRoadSegmentBy

Initials of the person who located the road's correct position on the Town map.

recordType

This is the word "establish", "discontinue", or "alteration". This of course is whether a road is being newly established, discontinued, or altered. You need only enter the first couple of letters of the word. When you tab to the next field, the full word will be filled in.

surveyedBy

Name of the person who surveyed the new road or road alteration.

surveyDate

Date that the new road was surveyed. The date must be in the form "YYYY-[M]M-[D]D". For months and days less than 10, you only need to enter a single digit.

recordedDate

Date the information was entered into the Town records, usually by the Town Clerk. The date must be in the form "YYYY-[M]M-[D]D". For months and days less than 10, you only need to enter a single digit.

briefDescription

The first few words of the survey description, usually just enough to make it easy to match this record to the hand-written Town records.

surveyDescription

Full description of the survey. This is usually a very long description.

tracking_comments

Any comments that may help track the status, problems, or questions relating to this record.

last_update

Date that this record was last updated in the database. This field is automatically updated whenever the database record is changed, and can not be edited manually.

Edit An Existing Record

From the Summary of Road Surveys page, click the index number of the record that you wish to edit. The first time you do this, it will ask for your user name and password. Once the correct user name and password are entered, a new window will open. You can now change information for each field. Follow the instructions in the Create A New Record section.

Delete A Record

From the Summary of Road Surveys page, click the index number of the record that you wish to remove. The first time you do this, it will ask for your user name and password. Once the correct user name and password are entered, a new window will open. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the "Delete this record" checkbox, then click the Submit button. The information is now permanently removed from the database. Be sure that's what you want to do!